Human rights abuses in India have risen, according to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the US is keeping a close eye on what he called “an increase in the human rights violations” by certain Indian authorities.
During a joint press briefing with the US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, Blinken said, “We regularly engage with our Indian partners (on these shared values) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise of human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials.”
Blinken did not go into further detail. Singh and Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken, did not address the human rights issue at the briefing.
Days before, US Rep. Ilhan Omar raised concerns about the US administration’s purported hesitation to criticise Indian PM Narendra Modi’s regime on human rights.
“When will we no longer regard India’s Muslim community to be a peace partner?” Last Thursday, Omar, a Democrat affiliated with President Joe Biden, remarked.
According to critics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he and his Hindu nationalist party have encouraged religious polarisation since taking power in 2014.
Attacks on minorities by right-wing Hindu organisations have intensified since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to office.
Anti-conversion laws have challenged India’s constitutional right to freedom of belief in some Indian states.
It was in 2019 that the Indian government implemented a rule that opponents argued compromised the country’s secular constitution by banning Muslim immigration from neighbouring nations.
Those who escaped Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan before 2015 were eligible for Indian nationality under the statute.
To further unify the predominantly Muslim area with the rest of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration dismissed occupied Kashmir’s special status shortly after his reelection in 2019.
More paramilitary police and troops were dispatched to the Himalayan territory claimed by Pakistan in order to tamp down on protests.
In the state of Karnataka, the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently passed a law prohibiting women from attending school while wearing the hijab. Later, extremist Hindu parties pushed for similar restrictions in more Indian states.
Works at The Truth International Magazine. My area of interest includes international relations, peace & conflict studies, qualitative & quantitative research in social sciences, and world politics. Reach@ [email protected]
